The marketing materials are shallow on detail. We don't know when it will launch, how much it will cost, what the operating system will be, or what the name of the phone is. (If it's really coming "soon," it seemingly can't be based on Windows Phone 7, which won't be available until much later this year.)

Gizmodo reports that it will be the slider phone pictured here, and it will be aggressively marketed as good for social networking.

It looks like a goofy phone that won't sell many units, but that will depend on pricing and features. And it's bizarre that Microsoft is going into the hardware business with old software when it's supposed to be pushing as hard as possible on its new mobile software.